Basic annual costs for keeping a boat in the water

salgarfi said:
Concerning the radio licence, though, once we bought our boat, do we have to take the VHF course and get a personal licence before we can actually use the radio, or is there a period of grace?
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My view which may be different to others on here is to take as long as you like. Get the personal licence as soon as you want. There is no evidence that anyone has been prosecuted for using a vhf without a licence in an emergency situation. Judging by the number of poor operators there is little evidence of policing of licence qualification anyhow!
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Don't get hung up about the radio thing. I don't think anyone can stop you from having a VHF onboard, and in any case you are legally allowed to use it if required in an emergency even if you don't have the ticket. Also anybody else on the boat is allowed to use it if one person has the license, since they are deemed 'under supervision'.

In practice there must be loads of people out there using their radio without the license. If you use it correctly, nobody is going to notice. But the easiest way to ensure that you are using it correctly is to go and do the course, and then you're all above board :)
 
jac said:
Minor clarification - The Ships Radio License is free and covers the lifetime of your ownership. You are right that the personal license costs a couple of hundred but again is for life ( or until they change the scheme again as they did when DSC was introduced)
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Thanks, haven't quite got as far as registering- I interpreted the ofcom blurb to be £22 annually, but happy to be wrong! That's a free fender!
 
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Kelpie said:
Don't get hung up about the radio thing. I don't think anyone can stop you from having a VHF onboard, and in any case you are legally allowed to use it if required in an emergency even if you don't have the ticket. Also anybody else on the boat is allowed to use it if one person has the license, since they are deemed 'under supervision'.

In practice there must be loads of people out there using their radio without the license. If you use it correctly, nobody is going to notice. But the easiest way to ensure that you are using it correctly is to go and do the course, and then you're all above board :)
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Perhaps the reason why there are so many poor operators is because of a "why bother" attitude to the test? It's easy enough to do and you can learn it yourself & just pay for the exam which IIRC is £60
 
salgarfi said:
Are there also situations where a radio licence is also owned by a club, so club members don't really need to get one?
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NO never.

Ships radio licence belongs to the ship.
Then each individual user is required to have a users license.

Ignore any idiots that say don't bother with the course / license. It may be fine in areas where no-one uses the radio but you could potentially cause the death of an innocent by using the emergency channel ( do you know which number it is?) and talking over their Mayday.

Or maybe hearing the mayday and not knowing what to do.

You probably won't get fined ( although it is legally possible) but you will definitely annoy everyone who hears you at best and at worst cause major disruption that may endanger others.

Which you choose to do says a lot about the type of person you are.
 
jac said:
...or until they change the scheme again as they did when DSC was introduced)
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I'm trying to find out (in communication with the RYA currently) about upgrading my old licence without retaking the whole thing again , but no-one seems to know about how you do that or can't understand what I'm asking, despite there being a line on the web page about it. Presumably you've done this one way or another? Did you just retake the whole thing?
Thanks
 
mogmog2 said:
I'm trying to find out (in communication with the RYA currently) about upgrading my old licence without retaking the whole thing again , but no-one seems to know about how you do that or can't understand what I'm asking, despite there being a line on the web page about it. Presumably you've done this one way or another? Did you just retake the whole thing?
Thanks
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When the change was first made to DSC (many moons ago!) there was indeed a conversion course which was half a day with an exam. However, demand simply was not there after an initial peak as most people took the whole day course.

Since then things have changed somewhat, primarily because of international pressure that our course was "too easy". plus the fact that the demand is for new applicants as "conversion" applicants have either converted or lost interest. You can still just take the assessment, but you need to find an examiner who will do just that, but most people take the whole course. This is sensible as by definition somebody who has an old certificate is short of knowledge (and practice probably) of the current procedures.
 
mogmog2 said:
Thanks, haven't quite got as far as registering- I interpreted the ofcom blurb to be £22 annually, but happy to be wrong! That's a free fender!
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The ships license and your personal license are both free if done on line. I think the fee only applies for those who insist on posting it.

But don't get hung up about it. Nobody has ever asked me for the ship's callsign, I have it on a laminated card next to the radio just in case.
 
mogmog2 said:
Perhaps the reason why there are so many poor operators is because of a "why bother" attitude to the test? It's easy enough to do and you can learn it yourself & just pay for the exam which IIRC is £60
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When chilling in the marina the other week, my partner suggested we listen to "Muppet Radio", recreationally. The attitude you speak of is probably why.
 
MountainGoat said:
When chilling in the marina the other week, my partner suggested we listen to "Muppet Radio", recreationally. The attitude you speak of is probably why.
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The "why bother" or self-study?
In the old days, you could buy the syllabus on audio & VHF tape, no classroom needed. I think there are online courses available now which, with multimeeja should be pretty good.
 
mogmog2 said:
I'm trying to find out (in communication with the RYA currently) about upgrading my old licence without retaking the whole thing again , but no-one seems to know about how you do that or can't understand what I'm asking, despite there being a line on the web page about it. Presumably you've done this one way or another? Did you just retake the whole thing?
Thanks
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I did the 1/2 day conversion course about 5 years ago and was told then that it would be coming to an end. Apparently the conversion course had been agreed as the industry / RYA / Ofcom realised that there would be a lot of demand for regular users as they upgrade equipment etc but that after a time, the vast majority of regular users would have converted and that those left may be irregular users ( who might benefit from the full course) and of insufficient volume to justify running courses.

IIRC the RYA changed the syllabus shorty after that anyway and it's not officially a 1 1/2 day course but 1/2 day is deemed home study.

My wife went to the same as I did to try nd do the conversion course about 3-4 years ago and was told that it had ceased so did the full one again.
 
ProDave said:
Yes. A motor boat.
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H,mm................... as most of the yots bobbing up and down outside my front window vanish ashore for much (most) of the year,suspect on a number of days actually moving around basis, yots are not quite as cheap to run as suggested !
Bit like the average cost of a private pilots weekend coffee working out at £200.00 per cup :)
 
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